Loans and Finance

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Monday, February 19, 2018

An ECB-supervised (repeat, ECB-supervised) Latvian bank is charged in the US with money laundering, the country's central bank governor is detained and now a moratorium is imposed on the bank. https://t.co/Fv7ImojJs5

Latvia’s government was meeting in emergency session on Monday after one of the Baltic country’s biggest banks reeled under accusations of busting sanctions on North Korea and the central bank governor was detained by the anti-corruption agency. https://t.co/OuB4oZIiKOpic.twitter.com/mGhDaMKj3E

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs
(CPIH) 12-month inflation rate was 2.7% in January 2018, unchanged from
December 2017.

The largest downward contribution to change in the rate came from
prices for motor fuels, which rose by less than they did a year ago.

The main upward effect came from prices for a range of recreational
and cultural goods and services, in particular, admissions to
attractions such as zoos and gardens, for which prices fell by less than
they did a year ago.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) 12-month rate was 3.0% in January 2018, unchanged from December 2017.

From April 2018, publication of these figures will move from Tuesday to Wednesday; the new release dates are available.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

the head of the Insolvency Service has just told a select committee that Carillion kept such bad records that it had been hard to work out even simple information such as the identify of all its directors

Monday, January 29, 2018

The BBC reports that all was not well in the House of Carillion in the years leading up to the collapse of the firm:

"Carillion "wriggled out" of payments
into its company pension schemes as its troubles grew, while it carried
on paying shareholder dividends and bosses' bonuses, say MPs.

The Work and Pensions Committee is questioning the way pension investments were managed at the collapsed outsourcing giant.

The schemes overall are in deficit.

But last year contributions to the pension funds were deferred until 2019, to help shore up the firm's finances.

The
committee has published a letter from Robin Ellison, chairman of
trustees of Carillion's pension scheme, giving an account of the last
few years and suggesting they have been left with a funding shortfall of
around £990m.

The letter shows that pension trustees were "kept
in the dark" about the state of Carillion's finances until late last
year, the committee argues, and that dividends and bonuses were paid out
at the expense of pension fund contributions."

Frank Field, chairman of the Work and Pensions Committee said:

"It's
clear that Carillion has been trying to wriggle out of its obligations
to its pensioners for the last 10 years."

It seems to me, to use a non technical/financial phrase, that Carillion was a pile of shit run by (and for the benefit of) worms!